1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a bus bar for use in phased feed electrical distribution. More specifically, the present invention relates to a bus bar, and the process for making the same, having a floor part and a cover part. The floor part comprises at least two chambers for the accommodation of a terminal track, and between the chambers is a chamber separating wall, whereby connector tabs are disposed on the terminal track. The cover part is made from an isolating material, and can be placed on the floor part in such a manner that the terminal track is covered up and the connector tabs protrude through corresponding openings in the cover part.
2. Description of the Related Art
The related art involves bus bars for the simultaneous phased feed of several switching devices disposed in parallel in an electrical distribution installation. Such bus bars feature in particular a floor part and a cover part made from an isolating material, whereby the floor part features at least two chambers for the accommodation of respectively one terminal track, whereby between respectively two chambers a chamber separating wall is disposed, whereby connector tabs are disposed on the terminal tracks and whereby the cover part can be placed on the floor part in such a manner that the terminal tracks are covered up and the connector tabs protrude through openings in the cover part. Such bus bars are for example shown in: DE 20 2006 016 750 U1; DE 20 2008 002 352 U1; as well as in DE 20 2009 013 790 U1.
The terminal tracks lie in the chambers and insulated from one another by means of the chamber separating walls, whereby however the connector tabs protrude beyond the chamber separating walls.
In the case of such bus bars with at least two terminal tracks, care has to be taken that the air path between the electrically conducting parts is sufficient to prevent a flashover. Furthermore the air path between electrically conducting parts and the outer surface of the housing must be large enough to exclude the danger that a person comes in contact with conducting parts. If applicable such bar buses must satisfy the requirements of the American UL 508 which requires an air path of at least 1 inch and a creeping distance of at least 2 inches in the case of such components. The air path is thereby defined as the shortest distance in the air between two conducting parts. The creeping distance is defined as the shortest distance along the surface of an insulating material between two conducting parts.
What is not appreciated by the prior art is that in the case of the known bus bars the cover part is manufactured using an injection molding process. If different spacings of the connector tabs are to be realized, different injection molding parts for the different spacings of the connector tabs have to be kept available, which causes high production costs.
Accordingly, there is a need for an improved bus bar that can be manufactured cost-effectively.